In the guide Pay-Per-Click 101, you learned about the basics of PPC and how to reach your target audience more effectively. PPC offers an alternative method to traditional forms of advertising that helps you attract new patients that are qualified to have an interest in your services.
Now, let’s dig a little deeper into how PPC can be optimized and monetized for the most results.
In this guide, you will learn about:
- Optimizing PPC ads, which includes content, keywords, and landing pages;
- What ad relevance, keyword quality scores, and click through rate mean for PPC success
- Addressing monetization – how much money to invest and how to manage your ads;
- PPC effectiveness and aligning your goals with your digital marketing efforts
Optimizing
In digital marketing, optimization encompasses several strategic methods that will enhance the marketing plan for the most return on investment. Now, there’s already so much competition to gain an audience’s attention online. So, how do you get past the noise and generate PPC (pay per click) results, and which key performance indicators should you be tracking to measure success?
Optimize Your Content
You may have heard the phrase “content is king”; behind this is the belief that the content is central to the success of a website. This statement was originally made by Bill Gates in January 1996, in an essay with the same title, which was published on the Microsoft website.
“Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.”
Back in 1996, Bill Gates knew how important content would be on the internet, but now we all realize what kind of role it plays in digital marketing, content marketing and search engine marketing. It is so important to offer your audience the kind of content they are looking for, and this even applies to ads like PPC. But if you think about now compared to 1996, the internet has evolved and advanced to include things like quality scores, relevance, and customer habits.
Quality Scores
Google is undeniably the most popular search engine used by the public. Now with that in mind, it is important to adapt your digital marketing practices to their search engine’s requirements. Google operates on the model that it will always provide you with the most relevant search results. So, when you develop any kind of online campaign, you will have to be very smart about the content and keywords you use. Google will assign your target keywords a Quality Score (QS). This QS, along with your CPC (cost per click) bid, is what then determines your “Ad Rank.”
According to Google, there are 3 fundamental elements that affect your PPC ad’s success:
- Click-through rate.
Google defines click-through rate (CTR) as a method that can be used to gauge how well your keywords and ads are performing. CTR is the number of clicks that your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown: clicks ÷ impressions = CTR. For example, if you had 10 clicks and 100 impressions, then your CTR would be 10%.
You can improve your CTR by:
- Using the proper keywords that match the needs of your target audience
- Writing excellent PPC ad text
- Making full use of Ad Extensions
- Increasing your bids
- Conducting A/B testing of the ads (try two different styles or content approaches to see how they perform comparatively)
- Ensuring the relevance between the keywords and the ads
- Employing negative keywords (Google defines negative keywords as “A type of keyword that prevents your ad from being triggered by a certain word or phrase. Your ads aren’t shown to anyone who is searching for that phrase. This is also known as a negative match.”)
- Using sitelink extensions (learn more about sitelink extensions).
- Ad Relevance
Ad relevance measures how closely related your keyword is to your ads. Google ranks your keywords and gives your keywords a status, so you can know how your ad ranks in terms of relevance. The three status options are above average, average or below average.
Having an “average” or “above average” status means that there are no major problems with this keyword’s ad relevance when compared to all other keywords across Google Ads. A “below average” status means that your ad or keyword may not be specific enough or that your ad group may cover too many topics.
Here are a few ways you can improve your ad relevance:
- Make sure that your keywords and the ads are highly relevant and have a direct correlation.
- Check on your search terms to ensure that the keywords and ad text are relevant to the search queries of the users.
- Do not forget – use the negative keywords. Remember, this helps to ensure that your ads aren’t shown to anyone who is searching for that “negative” phrase. You can use them at the Ad Group as well as Campaign Level.
- Ensure your ad groups are highly themed and set for best ad relevance (make single keyword ad groups.)
- Landing page relevance
If you are unfamiliar with what a landing page is; this is the page you get directed to after you click on an online ad. The landing page must provide a good experience to customers who click your ad.
To ensure your landing page passes the relevance test, you should:
- Make your landing page easy to navigate
- Create an attention grabbing headline
- Include a compelling CTA (call to action)
- Use attractive images (and videos, if you have them)
- Ensure the loading time of your page is quick
- Make your landing page responsive and compatible with all devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.)
The Quality Score is the estimated quality of all the things we just reviewed (your keywords, ads and the landing pages). To review, you should:
- Select Relevant Keywords and Target Your Customer. This includes targeting specific geographic regions and targeting demographics.
- Create a Clean Landing Page. PPC should have incentives and strong CTAs for immediate action from a potential patient.
Now that you have an outstanding PPC campaign, how do you monetize it?
Monetizing
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, they’ve suggested 7% to 8% of your gross revenue should be spent on marketing and 50% of that marketing budget should be dedicated to digital marketing.
But How Does This Translate For Your Audiology Business?
When deciding on how much the Ad Spend should be, it’s important to consider some key factors. These include but are not limited to:
- Target Area – What are the zip codes? How wide of a net do you want to cast?
- Demographics – How many in your Target Area are in your target Demographic?
- Competitors – Are your competitors doing ads?
- Budget – How aggressive do you want to be?
- Time – How long can you commit to the ads? It will take time for your ads to ramp up and begin paying dividends.
What Do You Spend?
We generally recommend about $1000/month Ad Spend for a single-office practice (not including management fees). For multiple offices, the budget should increase proportionately so you can commit ample resources to each location.
One major goal of any PPC campaign is to maximize the Ad Spend itself. Since you pay only when your ad is clicked on, the less you spend per click (Cost-Per-Click), the more clicks you can get for your money.
The industry average is around $6-$7/click, going as high as $10+ when improperly managed. AudiologyPlus averages approximately $3-$4 per click, meaning more “bang for your buck”.
Retargeting
Retargeting PPC ads is a way to re-engage potential customers who have already demonstrated an interest in your company or product. It is a strategic way to remind the customers of the product, and to entice them to follow through and make the purchase they didn’t make the first time they visited your site.
When retargeting is enabled, your potential customers are more likely to convert, whether it be to contact your business or purchase the product they previously showed interest in.
The Big Question Though Is: “How much can I expect in return?”
Although this varies by customer and campaign, a business should expect to see a minimum of 5-8 solid leads each month for a $1000/month Ad Spend. And by leads, we mean direct contact with your office in the form of a phone call or contact form request.
Over time, a well-managed campaign will increase the amount of conversions while decreasing the overall Cost-Per-Conversion.
The Must-Know Information About PPC
The first 30-60 days are crucial. You must be patient, but also aggressive.
For new campaigns, Google will need time to recognize and reward your Ads. So, don’t expect immediate phone calls once you launch. Over the course of the next 30-60 days, Google will begin assessing and grading your ads, and position them accordingly in their results pages.
During this time, your ads will begin collecting data. A good PPC professional will want to be aggressive in optimizing your campaign to deliver the highest possible grade with Google. Doing so should ultimately result in top placement in relevant searches along with a friendlier cost-per-click.
Having a Professional Team Manage Your Program Is Important. Especially One Familiar With Your Industry.
Anyone can create and run a campaign. Few can make it generate results. Because PPC is very advanced, it requires continuous monitoring and refinement. It also requires a deep knowledge of Google’s algorithm to ensure your ads are regularly shown and clicked on.
But not all industries are alike. The terms searched for a Tire Center will be very different from a medical practice. That’s why working with an industry-specific professional team will ensure your ads are only being show in relevant searches and optimized for your market.
Ads and Establishing Trust
Today, consumers are bombarded by messages in every aspect of their lives, so the unfortunate truth is that they’re reluctant to believe what they hear. And not only are they skeptical, they are resourceful. Consumers will look you up and fact check you if they don’t believe your message.
To combat this skepticism, it’s critical that the advertiser stays on message and provides reliable, trustworthy facts to gain trust in their marketplace across all generations. Some important ways to establish trust are to:
- Know your audience. Who are you trying to reach? What specific demographic are you targeting? Do you know what they want or need to hear from you?
- Do your homework. What is the problem the consumer has that you can solve? And this question goes deeper than “a hearing aid that is right for their hearing loss.” There is a lot that people consider before they purchase a hearing aid (for example, usability, budget, design, etc.)
- Build a recognizable brand that connects from all places you conduct business. It is important to make sure your message in your ads reflects the business practices you conduct every day.
- Deliver a compelling message. If your ads are portraying a real problem, those situations should be relevant and relatable.
Tracking – Metrics and ROI
There are many ways to track how a PPC campaign is performing. Key performance indicators, or KPIs, are used across almost every industry as a metric of performance.
Some of the most important PPC KPIs to use are:
- Clicks
- Click-through-rate (CTR)
- Cost-per-click (CPC)
- Quality score
- Cost-per-conversion
- Conversion rate
- Impressions
- Ad rank
Understanding the key indicators of campaign performance is crucial to get a clear understanding of PPC. Determining what KPIs you want to use as indicators for success are important to establish before beginning your PPC campaign. What do you want to get out of your PPC campaigns? What is most important to you? Some hearing professionals would want exposure to a new target area, while others may want to increase the traffic to their site to highlight a new service or product they have available. Understanding your campaign goal will only help you determine how you measure the campaign’s success.
PPC is a commitment. But Audiology Plus has a tailored program just for audiology professionals.
Audiology Plus’s PPC effective pay-per-click program equips your business with revenue-generating advertising online. With a Fortune 500 talented team of professionals managing your program, you can:
- Place your business on the top of Google searches
- Follow your website’s visitors with targeted ads
- Stay on top of your customer’s minds
- Turn potential patients into real patients
Executing an effective PPC campaign can be a lot for one person to take on. PPC from AudiologyPlus is a simple, straightforward, and cost-effective solution and leverages our team of experts to work on your behalf to make sure your PPC strategy goes off without a hitch. Contact us today to learn more.
